"People call me a perfectionist, but I'm not. I'm a rightist. I do something until it's right, and then I move on to the next thing." –James Cameron

When I’m working on a project, as I’m nearing a stopping point, where I feel like the design is in a good place and is ready for internal review with our Art and Creative Director, I get this small feeling, like a part of my brain is telling me something is off.

That little feeling is the 1% of my brain that isn’t quite sure that what I’ve made is actually ready for internal review. It’s telling me that maybe I should make an alteration, a change, to improve the work.

I now have two options.

One, I can go back into the file and edit the design, make that small change until the small part of my brain that doesn’t like it agrees. Now that I’m content that what I’ve made is indeed good, I can send it off through the appropriate channels.

Two, I can ignore that small alarm and move forward with saving out the file for internal review. I rationalize this by thinking to myself, “Well, if there is anything that needs to be changed, I’m sure it will get caught by my team and brought to my attention.”

Uh oh. In this situation, if I opt to go the second route, I’ve entered into dangerous waters.

Not only does my work now contain the potential for future revisions or errors, my negligence has guaranteed that there will be either future revisions or errors.

Statistically speaking, every time I’ve gone the second route and ignored my intuition to go back and modify something, or even proofread the content a fourth time, I almost always end up messing up somewhere or not hitting the mark.

It’s usually a small typographic error that I just didn’t catch the first three times.

Or a small change to a logo mark or icon that would have improved the legibility or impact of the mark.

As a fellow designer, I would like to urge you, please just check your work until you feel satisfied that nothing needs to change. If you get that small gut feeling, just go back in and fix it.

Even if it takes a few minutes, that effort goes a long way and makes a huge impact further down the line.

It’s worth it, I promise!

Bonus: here are some questions you can ask yourself to ensure your work is the best it can possibly be.

1. Do I honestly feel proud of what I made?
2. If I gave this work to someone else to finish, what would they change, and why?
3. Did I exceed the expectations of the client, or barely meet them?
4. If one of the best designers in the world saw this, would they be impressed?
5. If this piece was seen by someone 100 years in the future, would it be remembered. Or forgotten?